Thursday, December 20, 2007

Importing DVDs into iTunes...thanks DMCA!

As you may know, the iTunes feature that imports music tracks from a CD is crucial for everyday users to be able to put their "legally owned" music library on their iPod. However, this is not at all possible for your valuable DVD Movie library. This is basically because studios and MPAA in 2003 lobbied to have DVDs fall under the DMCA, which I personally believe contradicts several copyright and "fair use" laws that basically say I have the right to make a copy for backup purposes. The fact that I can't backup my DVDs or convert them into MP4 format really annoys me because I happen to own an Apple TV and if I want to watch a Movie I already paid $20 for, I have to purchase it AGAIN through iTunes to watch it on my AppleTV. This is complete crap, and I hope the DMCA is taken down someday soon.

So, here are the tools you need to backup and convert DVDs to iTunes (I think it may be illegal to link to these products, so google them yourself)- DVD Shrink: This will convert your DVD to an ISO file, which you can use as a backup.- SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive: this will let you mount the ISO file as it's own drive.- Xilisoft DVD to MP4 converter: does exactly what you think, works pretty nicely too.

If only iTunes had this DVD to MP4 converter, built in, my life would be so much easier and I think would make AppleTV a much more popular product. So come on Apple, can't you "convince" someone to overturn this Act?